Pump



A. O. PRICE PUMP Filed Aug. 3, 1948 INVENTOR Albert 0. Price BY Mga @livy Patented Feb. 27, 1951 PUMP Albert 0. Price, Leesville, Ohio, assignor of onehalf to Roy A. Ashworth, Leesville, Ohio Application August s, 1948, serial No. 42,270

This invention relates to an improvement in pumps and, more particularly, to an extremely simple pump for handling water and other liquids. i

It is the object of this invention to provide a rotary pump which is readily installed and does not require 'a relatively expensive convolute impeller and casing. In'fact, this pump requires no casing at all except that of the tank or other container for the reservoir of liquid into which the pump discharges.

The preferred embodiment of the pump as shown in the drawings is particularly adaptable for use in pressure tank water systems, such as are used on farms and suburban homes. construction of my pump is so simple, inexpensive, and readily installed that, when my pump is employed in such a water system, instead of constituting a major item of expense, the pump itself amounts to little more than a plumbing fitting; in fact, satisfactory embodiments of the pump have been made in which standard plumbing fittings constituted the majorV portions of the pump.

Refinements and improvements in my pump to accommodate it to particular uses or to improve its appearance may, of course, be made, but the general principles and advantages will be apparent from the following specification andy drawings of a preferred embodiment in which Fig. 1 is an elevation showing my pump, directly driven by a suitable motor, when connected to a suitable intake pipe and to a tank (shown, fragmenta'rily in section).

Fig. 2 is a detail cross-Sectional view of the rotor arm of mypump taken along the line 2-2 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 3 is a cross-Sectional view of my pump taken along the line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a cross-Sectional View of my pump taken along the line 4-4 of Fig. 3, but with the rotor turned through a 90 angle.

Fig. 5 is a detail View illustrating the ease of installing my pump. o

Fig. 6 is a diagrammatic showing of the electrical and water connections when my pump is used in a pressure tank water system. v

As shown in the drawings, and particularly in Figs. 3 and 4, my pump P comprises a generally T-shaped fitting lil in the bar of which the shaft 2% is suitably journaled and to the stern of which the intake pipe til from a sump or well, for example, is connected. As shown, the fitting iii is a machined block of brass or other metal provided at the tank side of the bar of the T with an en.-

The

8 Claims. (Cl. 103-83) larged pipe-threaded end l l to fit into the threaded boss [2 of the standard water tank [3 to which the pump P is connected. On the motor side of the bar of the fitting IE, a threaded portion of reduced diameter is provided to carry the packing nut Ili for the packing l'c'. The packing [5 seals the shaft 20 with respect to the fitting lil against the pressure developed within the tank and the pump. Actually, the fitting or body lil of my pump may consist simply of a standard street T plumbing fitting carrying suitable internal bushings to journal the shaft 23 and an external reducing bushing to permit the body lil to be mounted in the tank boss l2. In production, however, an integral body or fitting Ill costs little more than the standard plumbing ttings and a pump having its body made up of such standard plumbing fitting is not as marketable as a pump having the special integral body or fitting Ill as shown in the drawings; purchasers seeing the pump body made up of ordinary pipe fittings may refuse to believe the pump is operative or capable of delivering its rated capacity.

The pump shaft 2!! comprises an open-ended drilled rod or plugged tube having an internal passageway 2I communicating with the intake passageway Hi of the fitting lil through the port .22. The open end of the shaft 20, which extends beyond the end ll of the fitting IB, carries the hollow rotor arm 30. The opposite end of the shaft 20, which extends beyond the packing nut M, is, of course, closed.

The hollow rotor arm 30 comprises a hollow hub SI communicating with the passageway 2| of the shaft 28. Extending radially from the hub tl is the hollow spoke 32 which terminates with 'a discharge port 33 opening into the tank IE. The port 33 is located on the rear (with respect to the direction of rotation of the rotor arm` Bi!) of the rotor spoke 32 and lies substantially in a radial plane common to the axis of the shaft 2ii and the port 33. As shown in Fig. 2, the crosssection of the spoke 32 is elongated with respect to the direction of rotation in order to reduce the drag and frontal resistance of the spoke as it is rotated through the liquid in the tank If,, except, however, that the portion of the spoke adjacent the port 33 is preferably flared in order to increase cavitation behind the port.

It is extremely simple to install my pump in a tank and to take down the installed pump for inspection, although except for eventual wear of the bearing portions of the fitting IU in which the shaft 29 is journaled, the pump is particularly trouble free. To install the pump, the L-shaped assembled shaft 20 and spoke 32 to the discharge port 33.

rotor arm 30 are held so that the shaft 20 is substantially parallel to the wall of the tank l3 as the rotor arm 30 is passed through the opening of the boss l2, as shown in Fig. 5. Then, by turning the shaft 20 so that it is substantially perpendicular to the tank wall, the hub 3l may be passed through the opening of the boss l2. The fitting l is then placed on the shaft 20 and secured in place by vtightening the threaded end I l in the threaded boss l2. The intake pipe 40 is then connected to the fitting I0 and the shaft 20 is connected to a suitable prime mover. The pump is disconnected by following the above procedure in reverse order. In this instance the shaft 20 Vis shown driven by the motor M through a suitable flexible coupling l, but in many instances it is desirable to mount a pulley or sprocket on the end of the shaft 20 ito drive the shaft 20 through a belt or chain drive, usually at a higher rotational speed than that of the prime mover.

Fig. 6 of the drawings shows a schematic connection of the pump P, tank, and motor M in a domestic pressure tank water system. With the pump, motor, and tank installed and connected as shown in Fig. 1, the motor is operated in response to a difierential pressurestat DPS (shown only diagrammatically in Fig. 6). Thus, when the water pressure in the tank l3 drops below, say, twenty pounds per square inch, the motor M drives the shaft '20 to rotate the rotor arm 30 so that cavitation is created behind the port 33, drawing water into the tank from the intake pipe 40, through the intake passageway I6, axle passageway 2l, and thence through the hollow The motor M continues to operate until the pressure in the tank builds up to the maximum for which the differential pressurestat is set, say 40 pounds per square inch. To prevent the water under pressure from running backwards through the pump while the pump is not operating, a suitable check valve 4I is installed in the intake line 40. Since the pressure tank depends upon an air cushion or surge chamber in the tank 13 to operate, the check valve 3I may incorporate a suitable bleeder orifice to aspirate about 1% air into the water drawn into the tank to replace air dissolved in the water u ndepressure. For deep well pumps, suitable injector or air-lift auxiliary equipment may be employed.

Since the action of the pump depends upon cavitation created behind the `port 33 as the rotor arm 30 is rotated in the liquid being pumped, the eficiency of the pump increases proportionately to the speed of rotation of 'the rotor arm; consequently, it is preferable to run the pump at relatively high speeds, depending upon the visco'sity of the fluid being pumped and the radial distance between the center of effort of the port 33 and the axis of the shaft 20. In addition to to the action caused by cavitation behind the port 33, the pumping action is supplemented by the effect of centrifugal force on the fluid which has passed from the passageway 2l into the hollow spoke 32 of the rotor arm 30. As an example of the performance to be expected, a pump connected as shown in Figs. '1 and 6 was driven at a constant speed of 3450 R. P. M. by a quarterhorsepower motor, the radial distance between the center of effort of the port 33 and the axis of the shaft 20 being two inches. Water was delivered at the substantially constant rate of 17 gallons per minute against increasing pressure heads. until, .at a pressure head of 45 feet, the

the rotor arm 30, instead of vibrating violently" at the operating speeds of rotation, as would be expected, my pump is surprisingly free of vibration. Without excluding other explanations, due to the cavitation produced, the rotor arm 30 actuallydisplaces during operation a volume of water greater than the volume of the rotor arm. Apparently the weight of the water actually displaced substantially balances the weight of the rotor arm, whereby the net unbalanced weight may be or approaches zero. This explanation appears to be confirmed by (a) the relatively severe vibrations when the rotor arm 30, as described above, was run in air and (b) by the node or zero vibrations observed during the above described performance test when the pump was delivering approximately 8.5 G. P. M. at a pressure head of 81 feet. This node is believed to be explainable on the basis that at greater rates of delivery under lower pressure heads, the cavitation produced lby the rotor arm 30 actually caused the displacement of a weight of water greater than the vweight of the rotor arm, thereby producing a small unbalanced eccentric weight diametrically opposite the axis of the rotor arm. At pressure heads less than 81 feet, the lesser cavitation did not quite balance precisely the weight of the rotor arm. It is to be understood that the amplitude of any of the vibrations discussed above was never lsubstantially greater than the vibrations of the stock quarter horsepower motor M employed to drive the pump while the rotor arm 30 was submerged in water.

From the foregoing it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that where the pump is employed to deliver against a constant pressure head and is driven at a constant speed, the weight of the rotor arm may be adjusted so that the apparently unbalanced rotor arm Will run without detectable vibration, and that by counterbalancing or adjusting the weight of the rotor arm with respect to the fluid in which it is operated, the pump may be run at widely varying speeds or against varying pressure heads with no objectionable vibration. It should likewise be apparent to those skilled in the art that the pump disclosed may be modified or varied to meet requirements of the different mediums or volumes it is designed to handle. For example, in large pumps handling greater volumes of water or water containing suspended gritty matter, it may be desirable to mount the pump shaft in cutless rubber bearings rather than in bearings integral with the pump body or casing or in replaceable metal bearings or bushings carried by the pump body. Likewise, in pumps designed to run constantly or under conditions in which it is immaterial if the reservoir in which the rotor arm operates should empty upon discontinuance of operation of the pump, the check valve ill may be omitted.

The invention, therefore, is not to be construed as limited to the particular embodiment disclosed but may be varied by those skilled in the art within the scope of the following claims without departing from the said invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A pump comprising a generally T-shaped body, va shaft journaled in the bar of said T and extending therethrough, one end of the bar of said T being adapted to be secured to the wall of a reservoir of fluid to be pumped while an end of said shaft extends within said reservoir, means carried by the other end of said bar to pack the other end of said shaft with respect to said body, said body portion having an intake passageway extending through the stem of the T to and around said shaft, a hollow rotor arm mounted on the end of said shaft adapted to extend into said reservoir, said rotor arm having a port located eccentrically with respect to said shaft and rearwardly of said arm with respect to the direction of rotation of said shaft, said shaft having a passageway connecting said intake passageway to said hollow rotor arm, whereby, when said arm and shaft are rotated at speeds sufiicient to create cavitation behind said port, said cavitation will exert a force tending to withdraw fluid through said intake passageway, said shaft passageway, said hollow rotor arm, and out said discha'ge port.

2. A pump as defined in claim 1 in which the cross-section of the rotor arm is configured to reduce drag and frontal resistance thereof as said rotor arm is rotated.

3. A pump as defined in claim 2 in which the rotor arm is fiared adjacent the discharge port to increase cavitation behind said port.

4. A pumping assembly comprising a reservoir vessel for fluid to be pumped, an opening in the wall of said vessel below the minimum normal level of liquid to be contained therein, a pump fitting secured to said opening and extending exteriorly of said vessel, a shaft journaled in said fitting and extending into said vessel at one end and beyond said tting at the other end, a packing sealing said shaft and said fi'tting exteriorly of said vessel, means to rotate said shaft, a hollow rotor arm mounted on the end of said shaft extending into said vessel having a discharge port communicatirg with the interior of said arm and located rearwardly thereofV with respect to the direction of rotation of said arm, said fitting having an intake passageway surrounding a portion of said shaft between said packing and said vessel and said shaft having a passageway communicating with said intake passageway and the interior of said rotor arm.

5. A pump assembly as defined in claim 4 in which the cross-section of said rotor arm is elongated with respect to the direction of rotation to reduce drag and frontal resistance thereof as said arm is rotated in liquid pumped into said vessel.

6. A pump assembly as defined in claim 5 in which said rotor arm is fiared adjacent said discharge port to increase oavitation behind said port as said arm is rotated.

7. A pump assembly as defined in claim 4 including a check valve connected to the intake passageway of said fitting to restrain a reverse flow of liquid through said pump.

8. An easily installed pump for pumping liquids into a tank comprising a fitting having an end adapted to be secured to the exterior Wall of a tank adjacent an opening therein, a hollow shaft journaled in said fitting and extending beyond the end of said fitting, a hollow rotor arm mounted on said shaft, and a hub on said rotor arm and secured to said shaft, said hub having a diameter less than the diameter of the said opening in the tank, Whereby said arm and the said end of said shaft comprises an L-shaped assembly insertable into said opening and adapted to rotate the arm within said tank When said fitting is secured exteriorly of said tank.

ALBERT O. PRICE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 372,072 I-Iorne Oct. 25, 1887 1,757,670 Keun May 6, 1930 1,769,257 Demaree July 1, 1930 1,929,496 Jacuzzi Oct. 10, 1933 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country I Date 432,496 Great Britain July 29, 1935 577,051 France May 28, 1924 

